In an announcement that seems coincidentally timed to match T-Mobile’s own 3G upgrade, AT&T has announced that it has completed the software upgrade portion on its network, which is half of the equation to get users onto the faster 7.2 Mbps HSPA 3G network. The other half of the equation involves rolling out enhanced cell site backhaul to handle the traffic, and that would be hardware deployment. Until AT&T performs those hardware updates, users should probably not expect any immediate speed gains just yet.

However, if you’re living in select test markets–Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, and Miami–you’re lucky enough to be one of the first on AT&T’s faster network. The rest of the country could expect the full updates to be completed by the end of the year and into 2011.

After full testing of HSPA 7.2 software, AT&T decided to expedite deployment of this initial upgrade, which will result in a better overall customer experience by generally improving consistency in accessing data sessions. The software upgrade also prepares the network for faster speeds and increases network efficiency.